Transnational Law Commons^™

Schrems's Slippery Slope: Strengthening Governance Mechanisms To Rehabilitate Eu-U.S. Cross-Border Data Transfers After Schrems Ii, Edward W. Mclaughlin

Fordham Law Review

In July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the Privacy Shield Framework, the central data governance mechanism that once governed cross-border data transfers from the European Union (EU) to the United States. For the second time in five years, Europe’s top court invalidated the primary method of cross-border data transfers. Both times the CJEU found that the United States’s surveillance laws were, and remain, overbroad and fail to provide EU citizens with protections that are essentially equivalent to those guaranteed under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in light of the Charter of Fundamental …

Winter Is Here: The Impossibility Of Schrems Ii For U.S.-Based Direct-To-Consumer Companies, Vanessa Zimmer

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

In this paper, Vanessa Zimmer exposes the precarious position of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) companies that are physically located in the United States but still subject to the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) under Article 3(2) because they offer goods or services to European consumers online. Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and supplementary measures have dominated privacy conversions in the year since the European Court of Justice invalidated the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework with its Schrems II decision.

However, Zimmer argues that the greater issue for U.S.-based DTC companies is the lack of clarity over what constitutes an international, or restricted, transfer …

Fixing The Business Of Food: Aligning Food Company Practices With The Sdgs, Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Columbia Center On Sustainable Investment, Sanda Chiara Lab, Barilla Center For Food And Nutrition

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The food sector confronts significant sustainable development challenges. It both contributes to, and suffers from, environmental degradation, especially human-induced climate change and deforestation. Although it can provide farming communities with livelihoods and incomes, it also can fuel land grabs that undermine community rights and wellbeing. The sector feeds the growing global population, but also contributes to the epidemics of obesity and metabolic diseases, while chronic malnutrition has continued to worsen in the years since adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

In light of these challenges and opportunities, a number of frameworks, guidance documents, and standards have aimed to create …

The Role Of Expropriation Clauses In Protection And Promotion Of Foreign Investments In Renewable Energy: An Essential But Overlooked Legal Consideration, Moosa Akefi Ghaziani, Mohammad Akefi Ghaziani

Indonesia Law Review

Today the world is tackling climate change. The global threat of energy poverty along with the growing need for energy has escalated this crisis. The promotion of renewable energy sources is widely known as the main solution to this challenge. Many International and regional agreements address various aspects of renewable energy development such as trade, transit, security, and investment. Foreign investment is recognised as a crucial prerequisite for the global deployment of renewable energy, since not all States have the financial and technological potentials to develop this sector. Various investment agreements are signed to facilitate and promote investments. These instruments …

Principle Of Simple, Speedy, And Low-Cost Trial And The Problem Of Asset Recovery In Indonesia, Febby Mutiara Nelson, Topo Santoso

Indonesia Law Review

This article discusses whether simple, speedy and low-cost principles have been implemented in the criminal justice in Indonesia and the obstacles faced by the Indonesian criminal justice system, especially in terms of returning state losses due to corruption cases. The findings indicate that such principles are yet to be effectively implemented in the criminal justice system in Indonesia. Some obvious issues have emerged as an area for attention; first, that law enforcement in corruption cases takes a long time, remains complicated, and is also high-priced. Second, there are a number of obstacles confronted by the Indonesian criminal justice system, especially …

Unravel Persistent Land Tenure Insecurity Behind Indonesia’S Palm Oil Industry: Study Case Kinipan Indigenous Community In Central Kalimantan., Widya Naseva Tuslian

Indonesia Law Review

This paper argues that legal pluralism within the context of state law contributes to tenure insecurity experienced by indigenous communities behind the palm oil industry in Indonesia. The palm oil industry is an industry that contributes significantly to Indonesia's economy and is a mainstay of national export. However, this industry is also renowned for bringing multidimensional issues such as ecological problems, biodiversity crises, and land conflict with existing inhabitants, particularly indigenous groups. The latter issue is peculiar in Indonesia's palm oil industries as, in many cases, palm oil projects overlapped with indigenous people's forest land or places where they reside. …

Carbon Accounting By Public And Private Financial Institutions: Can We Be Sure Climate Finance Is Leading To Emissions Reductions?, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Emily Spittle

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

To further and fully understand how to plan for the decarbonization of mining value chains, we need better data on carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, neither consumers, corporates, or financial institutions know the embodied emissions in the products they produce or sell. While methods like life-cycle analysis and environmental product declarations exist, none use a verifiable, comparable, or widely adopted emissions reporting framework capable of sending supply chain signals.

To truly reform material supply chains, new solutions for markets, capital, and policy are required. COMET (the Coalition on Materials Emissions Transparency) – an alliance launched at Davos …

Application Of The Due Diligence Principle To Cyber Operations, Tomohiro Mikanagi

International Law Studies

The discreet use of proxies by States renders it difficult to prove attribution to States under the existing rules of attribution. On the other hand, the due diligence principle, if applicable, does not require attribution but can lead to the invocation of State responsibility for cyber operations emanating from the territory of other States. In the Corfu Channel judgment the ICJ recognized “every State’s obligation not to allow knowingly its territory to be used for acts contrary to the rights of other States,” and UN Member States agreed that existing international law applies to cyber operations. However, the UN Members …

Five Years After The Adoption Of The Paris Agreement, Are Climate Change Considerations Reflected In Mining Contracts?, Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye, Perrine Toledano, Martin Dietrich Brauch, Mara Greenberg

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Domestic laws are the ideal legal instrument to regulate the mining sector’s contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Even so, as a stop-gap-measure, governments may consider updating model mining development agreements (MMDAs) or negotiating climate­-related contractual provisions. This CCSI paper explores whether governments are using, and how they can use, investor–state mining contracts to advance climate goals. We synthesize our findings and recommendations for six categories of provisions: integrating renewable energy into mining products, reducing deforestation, requiring a climate risk assessment and community vulnerability assessment, regulating water use, requiring tailings dam design justifications, and integrating climate risks into closure …

Comparison Between The Ipcc Reporting Framework And Country Practice, Jiarui Chen, Martin Dietrich Brauch

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

To further and fully understand how to plan for the decarbonization of mining value chains, we need better data on carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, neither consumers, corporates, or financial institutions know the embodied emissions in the products they produce or sell. While methods like life-cycle analysis and environmental product declarations exist, none use a verifiable, comparable, or widely adopted emissions reporting framework capable of sending supply chain signals.

To truly reform material supply chains, new solutions for markets, capital, and policy are required. COMET (the Coalition on Materials Emissions Transparency) – an alliance launched at Davos …

Responsible Coffee Sourcing: Towards A Living Income For Producers, Kaitlin Y. Cordes, Margaret Sagan, Solina Kennedy

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Coffee, one of the world’s most popular beverages, provides livelihoods for at least 60 million people across dozens of countries. Promoting the long-term health, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability of the much beloved coffee sector should be a clear priority.

CCSI has continued its work on coffee sustainability with a 2021 report: “Responsible Coffee Sourcing: Towards a Living Income for Producers.” The report focuses on a critical but under-examined topic: the impact of coffee company sourcing practices on coffee producer and farmworker well-being. The report, commissioned by a long-term investment manager, analyzes the sourcing practices of ten large coffee roasters and …

The United Nations And Human Rights Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos) - Seventy-Five Years Of Consultations, Collaboration, And Contributions (1945-2000), George E. Edwards

Pace International Law Review

At the San Francisco Conference where the United Nations Charter was negotiated, participants and observers included representatives of “societies and organizations”—non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The precise number and identities of those NGOs is unclear, but 42 of the participants were consultants to the U.S. delegation that successfully lobbied for the Charter to include an official relationship between the U.N. and NGOs, and the promotion and protection of human rights. NGOs thus had a profoundly positive impact on the creation of the United Nations. For the first 75 years of the U.N.’s existence, NGOs have played an invaluable role in supporting the …

Revisiting The International Court Of Justice Procedure For The Revision Of Judgments, Juliette Mcintyre

Michigan Journal of International Law

The International Court of Justice (“ICJ”) is a court of first and last instance. Its decisions are “final and without appeal.” At first blush, this seems uncontroversial; it is a simple restatement of the well-established principle of res judicata. But if the court makes a judicial pronouncement without all the facts to hand, can one say that the decision is legitimate and authoritative? Pursuant to article 61 of the ICJ’s Statute, the court does have the authority to revise a judgment in certain, limited circumstances. Revision is a remedy that enables the court, upon the application of a party, …

International Tax Law Between Loyalty, Exit, And Voice, Tarcísio Diniz Magalhães

Dalhousie Law Journal

Discourse on the merits and pitfalls of multilateral cooperation for advancing justice in international tax law have recently re-emerged in the literature. Some tax scholars, even while criticizing global projects like the OECD/G20 initiatives on base erosion, profit shifting and the tax challenges arising from the digitalisation of the economy, insist that cooperative efforts herald a step in the right direction. Others contest the feasibility of international cooperation or its value for developing countries. Drawing on Albert Hirschman’s oft-cited framework for actor behaviour under institutional malperformance, this article shows that there are three alternatives for those discontented with the status …

United Nations At 75 And The Challenges Facing International Law, Ved Nanda

Pace International Law Review

On September 21, 2020, the Member States celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. In the Declaration marking the occasion, world leaders recounted the achievements of the body, including catalyzing decolonization, promoting and protecting human rights, working to eradicate disease, helping mitigate dozens of conflicts, and saving lives through humanitarian action. They also enumerated challenges the world faces, such as “growing inequality, poverty, hunger, armed conflicts, terrorism, insecurity, climate change, and pandemics.” These challenges, the Declaration said, are interconnected and can only be addressed through reinvigorated multilateralism, which, it emphasized, “is not an option but a …

Case Law On American Indians, Thomas P. Schlosser

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cultural Heritage Law Between Truth And Power: Law's Evolution And Our Collective Cultural Interest In An Informational Economy, Felicia Caponigri Jd, Phd

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

Julie Cohen’s book, Between Truth and Power, analyzes our shift to an informational economy, the increasing presence of networked infrastructures that contest our traditional rule-of-law framework, and the important role transnational governance institutions play in this context. As subject-matter examples of the shift to an informational economy, Cohen spotlights labor, land, and money and inspires us to think about how tangible goods have become dematerialized and intangible and then reified again as information and how legal entitlements shape our complex interactions with these newly complex properties. Taking inspiration from Cohen’s spotlight on labor, land, and money, this Essay proposes …

The Right To Food In Puerto Rico: Where Colonialism And Disaster Meet, Gabriela Valentín Díaz

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 And Land-Based Investment: Changing Landscapes, Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye, Nathaniah Jacobs, Clarisse Marsac

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

CCSI, IIED, and Namati are partnering on a new initiative to support governments, civil society, local communities, and private sector actors in improving the governance and practices of land-based investments.

Recognizing that more and better private sector investment is widely seen as critical to advancing economic development and achieving the SDGs in low- and middle-income countries, this initiative responds to concerns that land-based investments have resulted in land dispossession, environmental degradation, and conflict.

The Advancing Land-based Investment Governance (ALIGN) project involves:

• Sustained, in-depth work in up to three countries, including Sierra Leone, to support policy development and implementation, legal …

Fighting Human Trafficking And Exploitation Through The Power Of Local Policy And Programs: Analysis And Recommendations, Abby Torrice

Community Engagement Student Work

While the United States has made great strides since 2000 to combat human trafficking federally, there is still much to be done. This capstone project provides a comprehensive understanding of key terms related to human trafficking. These terms are then used to provide context to the reality of the issue of human trafficking and exploitation in our world today, and specifically the United States. Although human trafficking legislation has made swift advances at the federal level since 2000 and states have followed suit in creating their own policies, local municipalities and communities have an immense amount of power in creating …